KFRC-AM 1550 KYCY 1550 K-YOU radio is dead!

newsperson · Jan 3, 2009

Newsperson responds:

Yes we former KFRC fans remember spring of 2005 when they needed to have one less station in Sacramento in order to buy KOVR Channel 13. I remember talking to someone in New York at Infinity and asked them about selling 93.7 at Roseville before it was Jack. That would mean one less station. However they said KFRC was on the fast track and a sale would be announced soon.

The old 610 KFRC did benefit financially with its Sacramento coverage. I was working at the old I-97 KROI-FM when we heard that KFRC grabbed a department store's advertsing budget for Sacramento. They really had killer ratings in Sacramento back then and it wasn't just car listeners.

It is difficult to believe that 610 KHz. and 560 KHz. were ever diplexed at the same site. If you ask any engineer about doing that today he would say it's impossible. Do you have any documentation of any articles that refer to that site?

In my opinion the Berkley site is far superior for Sacramento coverage than any site in the City including 560 and 1260. In fact the lower frequency of 560 KHz. KSFO was always weeker in Sacramento than KFRC.

Any thoughts from others on the 610 KHz. coverage and it transmitter sites?

I will look for your replies.

Newsperson

DanStrassberg · Jan 3, 2009

newsperson said:
It is difficult to believe that 610 KHz. and 560 KHz. were ever diplexed at the same site. If you ask any engineer about doing that today he would say it's impossible. Do you have any documentation of any articles that refer to that site?

Not impossible but not easy either. The old rule of thumb was that the difference in frequencies had to be at least 10% of the higher frequency. 50 kHz is ~8.2% of 610. 1370 and 1500 in San Jose are diplexed. 130 is ~8.67% of 1500. AFAIK, on the basis of the frequency difference's percentage of the higher frequency, the two closest-frequency AMs that are diplexed in the US are 1290 and 1340 in Santa Barbara. 50 is ~3.73% of 1340. I wonder what the audio sounds like on either one. What the Santa Barabara stations have going for them is that both are low power and nondirectional. The San Jose pair are both higher in power and directional. 610 in SF is ND-U and 560 may still have been running 5 kW-D/1 kW-N ND-U when 560 and 610 were diplexed.

It is interesting, though probably meaningless, that the Berkeley tower now used by 610 and 1400 is exactly 1/4 wavelength at 560. That might mean that 1400's original diplex partner was going to be KSFO rather than KFRC. Or maybe I should say KCBS rather than KFRC. Remember that at one point, KCBS, when it was still transmitting from Alviso (and was still licensed to san Jose), was planning to swap frequencies with KSFO. KSFO was then going to build the 50 kW facility that KCBS has been using since 1951.

andreajesus · Jan 3, 2009

TRUE Oldies on KFRC-AM - MY Perspective...

downloaded about an hour's worth of the first day of "True Oldies" on KFRC-AM - i don't know - call me "old", but...unless it's REAL radio with REAL personalities that are NOT "taped" or anything - well, it just don't do it for me - as far as i'm concerned, the ONLY way that oldies can and should be done is with REAL radio personalities who CARE about the music, who CARE about their audience, who CARE about what they're doing (WCBSFM in New York being a FINE example of the RIGHT way to do it... 8)) - i think this "True Oldies" thing is Scott Shannon's ONE flop in a career that has had MANY MANY highs....

but that's just my opinion...

DaveBayArea · Jan 3, 2009

newsperson said:
Any thoughts from others on the 610 KHz. coverage and it transmitter sites?

I always thought the 610 signal was great. As an Oakland A's fan, the run on 610 was a real joy. I remember driving to Oregon one summer afternoon and enjoying a whole game - up to almost Yreka. I just assumed it was the combination of low dial position, a tall tower, and their location close to the bay. It worked in the Sierras, in the Central Valley, pretty much everywhere. 560 would never be as good, as they don't even have a 90-degree tower and they're directional away from SAC at night. 1260? Forget it. That tower is on Candlestick Point. I'll never be able to figure that one out.

One thing that always bugged me tho is why does 1450 seem to have such better coverage than 1400? It seems like with that tall tower and the grandfathered high-power (all the other graveyard channels have to reduce power when their antenna is more than 1/4 wavelength, AFAIK) they should be running rings around KEST. But such is not the case, at least towards the South Bay.

Dave B.

1069_KIFR · Jan 3, 2009

Does 106.9 retain the KFRC FM, HD-1 call letters
and 1550 gain KFRC-AM calls?

djj · Jan 3, 2009

BossRadioDJ said:
Lkeller said:

I thought the primary reason for selling 610 was the FCC ownership limits relative to the addition of 106.9. Not true?

Click to expand...

Noop. CBS wanted to buy KOVR (Channel 13) in Sacramento, and KFRC's strong signal into Sac on 610 AM put them technically over the FCC ownership limit.

So CBS "sold" 610 to Harold Camping, then "bought" 106.9 from Harold Camping, and got a TV Station in Sacramento.

I can hear KFRC-FM 106.9 in Sacramento in the car, though it does fight with the 106.9 from the Reno area...
Is that, technically, a violation similar to what you described above? or is it not, because 106.9's weaker than
610's presence in Sacto?
Or does it matter now, since CBS Sacto just "traded" 93.7 to Clear Channel?

P.S. - Sounds like from Andrea's comments above, and what I heard on 1550 1/1/09, the True Oldies Channel has
changed very little since I first heard it on an Oregon excursion in Feb 2005. Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn!

P.P.S. - Andrea, I believe L.A.'s Pirate Radio 100.3 in 1989-91 could be another critical flop for Scott Shannon...
it was not a long-ternm ratings success (Scott lasted just over a year there):
http://www.kqlz.com/pirateradio2.html
--jay

DanStrassberg · Jan 3, 2009

DaveBayArea said:
(all the other graveyard channels have to reduce power when their antenna is more than 1/4 wavelength, AFAIK)

No! Class C AMs (the so-called graveyarders) can use highly efficient half-wave and greater than half-wave towers. The primary limitation is that the daytime groundwave 0.25 mV/m contour must not encroach on the the 0.5 mV/m contour of any first-adjacent-channel station. As a practical matter, in any populated area, you won't find a place where you can build such a station, but such existing stations as KVTO are not technically grandfathered unless they violate a definition of prohibited overlap that did not apply at the time their present facilities were licensed. It was by means of tall towers that many graveyarders maximized the coverage they could achieve with the limited power allowed (1 kW max now; once 250W max and then 1 kW-D/250-N max).

blackhole · Jan 3, 2009

1069_KIFR said:
Does 106.9 retain the KFRC FM, HD-1 call letters
and 1550 gain KFRC-AM calls?

106.9 HD-1 is KCBS FM now. 106.9 HD-2 is KFRC for what it is worth, and 1550 AM is (or will become) KFRC AM

RadioStarOne · Jan 3, 2009

Is the programming on KFRC 106.9 HD-2 the same as what is being broadcast on 1550AM? Simple Question Could I Please Get A Simple Answer?

OhioMediaWatch · Jan 3, 2009

blackhole said:
106.9 HD-1 is KCBS FM now. 106.9 HD-2 is KFRC for what it is worth, and 1550 AM is (or will become) KFRC AM

No part of 106.9 is "KCBS-FM". That'd be a surprise to the real KCBS-FM, which is the Los Angeles market's "Jack FM" outlet.

106.9 HD-1 is still legally KFRC-FM, though it carries the KCBS(AM) 740 programming.
106.9 HD-2 is still legally (a side channel of) KFRC-FM, and carries the automated KFRC "classic hits" programming which used to air on the station's analog/HD-1 feed.
1550 AM is now legally KFRC(AM), as of 1/1, according to the FCC's Call Sign Request web page.

djj · Jan 3, 2009

RadioStarOne said:
Is the programming on KFRC 106.9 HD-2 the same as what is being broadcast on 1550AM?

The answer is No, it is not the same...

KFRC-FM's HD-2 is playing the "Classic Hits" format abandoned by 106.9 HD-1 in October...
The www.kfrc.com website is simulcasting that HD-2 channel;
From the website:

"Additionally, the Classic hits format will continue streaming on www.kfrc.com as well as broadcasting on KFRC HD-2 in the Bay Area."
http://player.play.it/player/player.html?v=4.1.25&id=148&onestat=kfrc2

I suppose, with the exception of the local KFRC inserts on 1550, the True Oldies Channel IS
being "simulcast" on www.trueoldieschannel.com :
http://www.trueoldieschannel.com/html/what.html
--jay

andreajesus · Jan 3, 2009

djj said:
P.S. - Sounds like from Andrea's comments above, and what I heard on 1550 1/1/09, the True Oldies Channel has
changed very little since I first heard it on an Oregon excursion in Feb 2005. Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn!

P.P.S. - Andrea, I believe L.A.'s Pirate Radio 100.3 in 1989-91 could be another critical flop for Scott Shannon...
it was not a long-ternm ratings success (Scott lasted just over a year there):
--jay

thanks - i almost forgot about that Pirate Radio nightmare....

Andrea

newsperson · Jan 3, 2009

djj wrote:

I can hear KFRC-FM 106.9 in Sacramento in the car, though it does fight with the 106.9 from the Reno area...
Is that, technically, a violation similar to what you described above? or is it not, because 106.9's weaker than
610's presence in Sacto?
Or does it matter now, since CBS Sacto just "traded" 93.7 to Clear Channel?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Newsperson responds:

With an FM station it's the 54 dbu protected contour and KFRC-FM 106.9 does reach Sacramento with a 54 dbu contour.

With an AM station it's the 2.0 millivolt contour and 610 KHz. does cover most of Sacrametno with a 2.0 millivolt contour so it does count as a Sacramento station.

Isn't ironic that CBS has now traded away 93.7 at Roseville? Back in the spring of 2005 I tried to get Infinity to sell 93.7 in lieu of 610 KFRC. But they didn't care, they needed to shed one station (to buy KOVR Channel 13) and remember these were people from New York making the decesion and they have no emotional connection to anythng or any station in Northern California.

You know the rest of the story except it is sad that Infinity didn't sell 93.7 back in 05 in lieu of 610 except that's corporate and they don't care.

Your comments?

Newsperson

Madmansam · Jan 3, 2009